Hi! My name is Jonny. I currently reside in Baltimore, MD. I am a graduate student studying teaching at University of Maryland. I own an Alienware m11x r2 and an iPad gen 1. I don't own a surface yet but am planning to purchase one soon. My idea is to sell both my laptop and tablet and switch to just using the surface. It has everything I would need for school and looks very solidly built. I am just so burned out with laptops. I have had so many bad experiences with them and end up having to replace them every 2 years. My m11x is already starting to mess up on me so I plan to rid myself of it soon. Hopefully using this forum I can figure out what difficulties I will have without a laptop and make sure that this is the right decision! Any feedback on this idea would be appreciated and thanks for reading!!

Welcome! How do you typically use your laptop and what software do you need to run? The Surface RT is a great device, but will not run legacy software. As long as that is not a requirement, then the surface should do well. It's not a laptop, but that is as much a plus as a negative. It smaller and lighter with great battery life, but at the same time is not as flexible as a laptop. I would think that for most school work, a Surface RT would be a great fit. With the touch cover, it very portable and for heavy writing you can always connect a standard keyboard.

it depends what you will be using the surface for. For example, if you were an engineering student, you probably won't be able to get by with just the surface for work. Like matlab, pspice for example. But if it's mostly for word processing I think the surface will do the job

I used to be an avid pc gamer but got burnt out recently. Most of my gaming time is now spent with my iPad. What I usually find myself doing on my laptop is either working on a paper in word or surfing the internet. Frequently both at the same time. I also enjoy netflix. Other than that my application usage is quite sparse on my laptop. What I am really looking for is something with good build quality. I don't want to buy the surface and than have to spend another 500 in 2 years. I still have my original iPad which I purchased a couple months on release. Absolutely no problems with it except that I find that it is outdated and I can't access all the apps which are coming out. Hardware wise, it runs just like it did on the day I bought it which is what I am looking for with the surface. Has anyone experienced any hardware problems so far? Looks like the hinge at least will never ever be broken unless I do it purposely.

Quality wise you should be happy for the next 4 years. But like with your laptop or iPad, it could feel outdated after 2-3 years. Microsoft have stated 4 years of support, but with new hardware and updates in os' there is a chance of not getting everything as well (to slow for new games or likewise).
But if you want ho have something new, what combines your basic needs in laptop work adding the short game experience of the iPad, the surface may be the right thing for you. It replaced my old working laptop for my master-thesis and i do not regret it.

I used to be an avid pc gamer but got burnt out recently. Most of my gaming time is now spent with my iPad. What I usually find myself doing on my laptop is either working on a paper in word or surfing the internet. Frequently both at the same time. I also enjoy netflix. Other than that my application usage is quite sparse on my laptop. What I am really looking for is something with good build quality. I don't want to buy the surface and than have to spend another 500 in 2 years. I still have my original iPad which I purchased a couple months on release. Absolutely no problems with it except that I find that it is outdated and I can't access all the apps which are coming out. Hardware wise, it runs just like it did on the day I bought it which is what I am looking for with the surface. Has anyone experienced any hardware problems so far? Looks like the hinge at least will never ever be broken unless I do it purposely.

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Welcome Surface RT will be fine for all of this use. Mr. NK covered you as far as durability of the device. Ever faster processors and more complex apps will probably make the Surface feel old before it ever physically wears out. Of course it isn't inexpensive but if you are replacing a laptop and an iPad, cost wise you should have the budget to replace every 2-3 years if you feel it is slow compared to the latest and greatest of that time.